How to Get Involved With the Women's March on Washington

There's a way for students to help.

By now, you've probably heard about the Women's March on Washington. On January 21st, the day after Donald Trump is inaugurated as President of the United States, over 200,000 people will take to the streets of Washington, D.C. to remind the federal government that the marginalized groups targeted with hateful rhetoric during the election cycle will not be silent over the next four years. The demonstration is not an anti-Trump protest, but rather, a way to "send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights," according to its mission statement. ("Women's rights are human rights" is one of Hillary Clinton's most iconic quotes, delivered at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.) Feminist icon Gloria Steinem and seasoned activist Harry Belafonte will both serve as honorary co-chairs of the event, and celebs such as Amy Schumer, Amber Tamblyn, and Olivia Wilde have all expressed their intentions to attend. Planned Parenthood, the NAACP, and Amnesty International are listed among the 77 partners.

However, the march is still a grassroots effort, and depends on the participation of citizens nationwide, including those who can't physically attend. Working to mobilize college and high school students are Madison Thomas and Tabitha St. Bernard.

“After the election, everybody was a little bit heartbroken," Madison, a sophomore at Georgetown University, tells Teen Vogue. "I certainly was not expecting the results to turn out as they did, and in the days after the election I was really lost I didn’t know what to do next, because Hillary Clinton had always been one of my biggest role models." On November 9th, her campus felt as if it were in mourning, like many others across the country. Students cried in the hallways, professors cancelled classes, and some courses veered off the syllabus, covering instead what could change come January 20th. During the fall, Madison interned for Washington Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), and fielded phone calls from concerned members of the public asking for guidance. "I didn't know what to say," she admits. After discovering the Women's March on Washington Facebook page, which was then in its earliest incarnation, she messaged one of the national organizers expressing her interest in taking a leadership role.

Now, as the National Coordinator for College Engagement, Madison is working to bring college students to the march in D.C. and support students organizing on their own campuses. "It’s a huge task because there are hundreds of thousands of colleges in the United States, and thousands on the East Coast with easy access to D.C.," she says. Instead of tackling every school herself, she's developed a system of campus liaisons. "I believe that students at each college know their classmates best, and know which members of their community will best be able to organize people.” These liaisons are tasked with empowering students to attend the march, and coordinating with state transportation efforts to get them there. Because some students will be traveling to D.C. from the west coast and Midwest, and won't be able to make it home the same night, Madison has been working on a system where students in D.C. can host visiting students, so hotel costs aren't inhibiting. For those who can't attend, campus liaisons will be organizing demonstrations at their universities, hosting viewing parties, and setting up tables to share information.

The Youth Initiative was developed by Tabitha St. Bernard, who couldn't stand by and stay silent as the mother of a two-year-old. “I wanted to help parents have a voice and also help youth have a voice because – it’s super cliché – kids are really our future. They’re going to be taking over the world at some point, so it was really important to me within the context of a women’s march to make sure that we found space for the voices of young people. After Madison started doing college outreach, we saw a gap in the high school age, so we created the Youth Ambassador program for kids 18 and under.” Teens selected to be Youth Ambassadors will receive a platform to showcase their own community activism on an international scale, and connect with seasoned activists during 1:1 mentoring sessions. So far, the program has received applications from kids ages 12-18 working on LGBTQ rights, sex trafficking, racial injustice, immigrant issues, and others. "We want to know what’s important to their age groups, and we want them to have a space in the conversation around the Women’s March." According to the application, "Youth Ambassadors should be ready and able to be interviewed about their passions. No travel is required and we encourage submissions from all over the world."

"The Women's March on Washington is now an international movement, we want to help these teens who have been working on causes that matter to them," Tabitha says.

Youth participation in the women's march is particularly important considering the number of people coming of age over the next four years, and the lack of youth representation in government. (Not to mention, more youth voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries than Trump and Clinton combined.) "People under 21 are over a quarter of the U.S. population and there are no young people in Congress," Madison says. "The youngest member of Congress is 32. We’re not necessarily represented through our age group in elected government and so I think that’s why it’s really important to show our elected representatives that we do have a really strong voice, and we want to help shape what America is going to look like for us."

To become a Women's March campus liaison, or connect with the the liaison handling your college, send an email to college@womensmarch.com.

To apply for the Women's March Youth Ambassador program, email a complete application to tabitha@womensmarch.com by December 31, 2016. Application details are available here.